


Human Variables (No Such Thing as Coincidence Remix)

by Rynne



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Family, Gen, Mother-Son Relationship, Starfleet Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-02
Updated: 2014-05-02
Packaged: 2018-01-21 16:17:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1556537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rynne/pseuds/Rynne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Winona doesn't know what to do about Jim.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Human Variables (No Such Thing as Coincidence Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [katmarajade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/katmarajade/gifts).
  * Inspired by [No Such Thing as Coincidence in Command Track](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1237381) by [katmarajade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/katmarajade/pseuds/katmarajade). 



> Thank you to my lovely beta! Also, this is set soon after we see Jim as a kid in STXI, but I only used material that was explicitly in the movie.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it, katmarajade!

When Winona returns to Iowa after Jim stole her brother Frank's car and drove it over a cliff, the first thing she does is take her son into her arms and hug him tightly as he complains about her grip. 

The second thing she does is take his face between her hands and demand, "Tell me why."

Jim's response is a shrug and a, "It seemed like it'd be fun." He pulls his face out of her hands and looks away, scuffing his shoe against the floor.

Winona holds back a sigh and props her hands on her hips. She loves her son with everything she has, but sometimes she has no idea how to relate to him. He doesn't respect Frank as a figure of authority, but someone has to be with Jim when Winona is in space.

Finally she shakes her head and tells her silent boy, "You're grounded for two weeks. You go nowhere except to school and back, and I will take you. If you apologize to your uncle, are you going to mean it?"

He raises his eyes to meet hers defiantly, and oh, he is her son. "No," he says, sullenly but firmly.

Winona huffs. "Then I will not make you waste your breath on an apology both of you know is insincere, but you will have to do something nice for him. You will think of something on your own, you will tell me what it is before you do it, and it will be something _genuinely_ nice, Jim. I know the two of you don't get along, but things like this don't help."

Jim's eyes flash. "What do you know about what'll help, you barely even see us together, you're never here."

Before Winona can make any response to that, Jim turns on his heels and runs up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

\--

Winona never wanted to command. She had her entire course at Starfleet Academy plotted out, and was perfectly happy on the science track. She was going to be an officer in three years, and did not know how she ended up in the Command Officer Strategics class.

Of course, she would give it nothing less than her best, but she was going to be a science officer. She wasn't sure she liked spending so much time on something that would probably never be relevant.

\--

Jim refuses to do something nice for Frank.

Well, perhaps refusal is overstating it. _Refusal_ implies actively stating "no." Instead, Jim ignores her order, and ignores her every time she tries to bring it up.

She passes the entire two weeks of his grounding in Riverside, while Frank goes back to his own house in Cedar Rapids. She takes Jim to school and picks him up afterwards, and Jim says not a word to her in transit. When he's at home, he stays in his room with the door shut unless they're eating, and he comes to meals only because she made it clear that she would drag him out of his room by his ear.

Winona wishes that George Jr. were there, because Jim looks up to his older brother. George Jr. is in college, though, and not available to be a buffer.

…She wishes she didn't need a buffer to interact with her own son.

\--

She lost one of the practical strategy scenarios in the Command Officer Strategics class. As little as she liked to lose, what really frustrated her was why she lost -- or at least, why the instructor lectured her about her failure.

Part of the scenario had been the trapping of her mission team in quicksand. When she heard them calling for help, she ran immediately to their aid, leaving the completion of their objective to her XO. Her XO called after her frantically for orders, as if he weren't her second and supposed to be able to make decisions for himself and their team, as if he weren't actually in this class because he wanted to be in Command. She ignored him, and went to the people who needed her.

For that, she had to listen to an office-sitting, knowledge-gleaned-purely-from-books-and-sims, corporate type professor tell her she should have left her people to die.

No. Winona Maris did not leave her people behind. Nothing would make her a greater failure than abandoning the people who needed her.

\--

When the two weeks are up, Winona dubiously lifts Jim's grounding. He ignored her as much as he could throughout his sentence, and she hopes that being allowed out of the house again will soften him towards her.

Another problem looms: her leave is only for a month. In another two weeks, Winona needs to return to her position as Science Officer on the _Caroline Herschel_. What is she supposed to do about Jim then? Her tour still has another eleven months, but she doesn't see how she can leave Jim and Frank alone together again, not with Jim sullen and unrepentant and Frank seething.

Would it kill Jim just to _talk_ to her? She knows she's never been the perfect mother, and she knows he probably resents that she keeps leaving, but…Starfleet has always been her dream. Exploring space is her life. What would she do, stuck on the ground?

Why can't Jim just appreciate the time they do have together, the way she does?

Because he's a child, and he wants his mother.

She drops her face into her arms, closing her eyes. Her child needs her. What else can she do?

\--

George Kirk, the commander of the other team in the scenario, stayed behind to talk to her after the debriefing. He was ridiculously arrogant, but somehow endearing, even as he observed that the Command course pushed her in ways her Science classes never did. It drew her out of her comfort zone and forced her to make decisions anyway.

Of course, she was going to stick with Science. That was where her passion and dedication lay, and what she wanted to spend her life doing. But then Kirk told her that he'd seen command potential in her that the professor hadn't, had seen why she hadn't come closer to winning.

"My crew is more important than any objective," she told him firmly. Saving them was enough of a win for her.

She was pleased to see him nod in agreement, even as he explained, "They tend to beat that out of us within the first two years on Command track, but somehow I doubt they could get you to change your mind."

"It's rare. I'm usually right," she replied, with a smirk in his direction that softened a bit as he laughed.

"I've noticed! You're the most impulsive, brashest cadet in this class," and when her eyes narrowed, "And you care more than anyone else here, and put everything you've got into these scenarios. You refuse to fail, even when failure is a valid option."

"Failure is never an option. I'll never believe that."

He smiled, a curve of lips that slowly lit up his whole face and made clear blue eyes practically sparkle.

\--

It doesn't take more than two days for Winona to make up her mind, and another week to get things sorted out with the brass, who are eager to make allowances for George Kirk's widow and son. As much as she doesn't like getting special treatment, Winona will take what she can.

She'll stay here, for Jim. She'll stay in Iowa and be his mother, be there when he needs her. And when Jim is grown, she can go back to Starfleet.

She tells Jim at dinner. His eyes widen and his mouth falls open, then closes after a minute, like he's not sure what to say. He looks down at his plate, his hand on the table clenching around the fork in his grasp.

Winona pauses to look at him for a moment, then smiles and lays her hand on top of his, relieved when he loosens his grip. "Did I ever tell you how I met your father?" she asks, and when he shakes his head, she squeezes his hand.

Winona Kirk will never leave her people behind.


End file.
